Homan in command

FORT RECOVERY - Fort Recovery's Ben Homan had the ball in his hand.

And he was in command.

Homan pitched five beautiful innings of baseball - racking up nine strikeouts and allowing just two hits - and the Indians notched their second win in three tries this season with a 10-1 defeat of Celina on Monday at the ballpark in Fort Recovery.

"I think he settled in after that first inning," Fort Recovery coach Jerry Kaup said. "He may have had some first-game (pitching) jitters. He got in his groove and he pitched really well. In the fifth inning, he seemed to get a little fatigued, but he battled through it and got out of it."

The Bulldogs scored an unearned run off Homan in the first. Grant Wagner reached base on an error and went home on an infield single by Gabe Perry.

Homan followed with a two-run double in the home first and the Indians played add-on the rest of the way.

The Indians scored five runs in the second inning, two in the fourth and one in the fifth.

Ben Homan went 2-for-4 with three RBIs. Will Homan finished 2-for-4, Nick Thwaits was 2-for-4 with a double, Reese Rogers had a double and an RBI fielder's choice, Kody Shinabery and Cade Wendel both had RBI doubles. Fort Recovery finished with 11 hits.

"We had an opportunity to do some running on the bases," Kaup said. "We were able to capitalize on that and get some timely hits.

"We're looking for some senior leadership," Kaup added. "Ben's one of the guys we've had playing for us for the last three years. So we're going to need some leadership. We have some talented sophomores who are going to follow their leads. … Tonight, Ben had the baseball on the mound. He did a really nice job for us."

Reid Harter lasted three innings on the mound in his start for the Bulldogs. He gave up seven hits while striking out five and walking none, but be encountered trouble in the first two innings by hitting the opening batters. Five of his seven runs allowed were earned.

"He just got behind all the time," Celina coach Andy Mikesell said. "The top of their order can hit. He's not overpowering by any means. So when you fall behind and they know it's coming, they're going to smash it and they did.

"We weren't ready to play," Mikesell added. "A big part of that today is on us, not knowing where we were going to play. We didn't know if it was going to be here or at Celina. What were the kids thinking about all day? They were thinking about that, having a chance to play on our field for the first time. I think that got them excited and then that got taken away. That was a big part of it, but we had a bad practice on Saturday. And bad practices translate to bad games."

Riley Post threw two scoreless innings of relief for Fort Recovery and allowed just one hit.

Bransen Miller pitched three innings for Celina, giving up four hits and three runs (two earned). Parker Maurer added a double at the dish for the Bulldogs.

Both teams are at home tonight as Fort Recovery (2-1) hosts Lincolnview and Celina (0-1) welcomes Marion Local to Montgomery Field.